Isabella’s POV

The plan is no longer a set of diagrams on a page. It is moving through the world like a quiet, hungry thing that eats space and time and leaves consequences behind. I sit at the little round table in my study with the blinds down, a cup of untouched coffee cooling beside me, and watch the progress reports arrive on my phone like little heartbeats that tell me when to breathe and when to push. Michael is the one out in the city, the visible hand guiding our ledger man, the man ...